Odd little story out of China today that doesn’t involve Steve Francis or Stephon Marbury for a change.

The Chinese government is cracking down on “language purity” and is trying to eliminate the use of “unnecessary” English words and phrases that have become increasingly common in Chinese writing, as reported a couple clicks away at NBC News.

One of the banned words — NBA.

In April, TV channels were told to ban English acronyms like NBA, which translated into Chinese in as long as 10 characters: “Mei Guo Nan Zi Zhi Ye Lan Qiu Lian Sai.”

As happens in the online market everywhere, this edict is largely being ignored and mocked for its stupidity.